Photo: Justin Thomas returns to the PGA Tour this week.
The Florida swing kicks into high gear for the next two weeks as the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill takes place this weekend.
This is always a strong field as players showed up at the tournament in the past when Palmer was alive and was on site to visit with the players, they still show up in droves to honor and pay tribute to one of golf’s greatest icons.
This event draws them for all the same reasons as Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial tournament draws a great field each year.
It is another of the Signature events on the Tour and the field is elite.
All of the top 10 ranked players are in the tournament, as are the current top 10 players in the FedEx standings.
The top 10 in the world are, in order: Scottie Sheffler, Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Collin Morikawa, Chris Gotterup, Russell Henley, Roberty MacIntyre, J.J. Spaun, Xander Schauffelle.
Other notables are Justin Thomas, who makes his return to the Tour for first time since having surgery in November. Thomas has not hit a ball in a competitive format since the Ryder Cup last September.
World No. 1 Scheffler is back after taking a week off after seeing with 18 tournament streak of top 10 finishes at an event come to an end with a 12th at the Genesis.
Bay Hill has been kind of the Scheffler, then again that could be said about a lot of courses, as he has never finished outside the top 25 in five career starts and has won the tournament twice.
Bay Hill is a par 72, at 7,466 yards. Bay Hill will once again host the Arnold Palmer Invitational, with 2026 marking its 48th time doing so. It’s a mostly flat layout but features water challenges on most holes and demands a high level of ball-striking and shot-making in order to score well.
It’s been as testy a venue as any on the PGA TOUR – with the past nine Arnold Palmer Invitational events featuring scoring averages of over par.
The television schedule is Thursday-Friday, the Golf Channel from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. PDT; Saturday-Sunday, 9:30-11:30 a.m. on the Golf Channel, then 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. on NBC, Peacock.